I'm looking at replacing the rear body wiring harness for my 66' Acadian ( for the rear lights & gas tank sender). I had considered restoring the original one but I think if it's available new for my car, it might be a good idea since the car/wiring is pushing 50 years old....
My concern is that if I buy a harness for a Chevy 2 or Nova that it may not be the same as the one used in my Acadian.
-Concerns being the taillights since they look different, will they use two outlets like the Acadian?
-Also the back up lights seperate wire's, since the backup lights are in the bumper of the Acadian, will the Nova harness work?
-Finally the liscence plate, there seems to be a wire on the Acadian for that, is there one on the Nova.
Be sweet if I could just buy the harness and it all work, but I'm not sure. So before I start to try and restore the old one, I thought I'd check and see if anyone has done this.
If you could advise of a good quality manufacturer and or if any mods that had to be made to the harness in order to make this work....
Checked with American Auto Wire, they do not make the harmess for the Acadian, as I had assumed and do not custom make them even if I sent mine down. In the end, I opted to keep mine as it didn't have any deteriation signs and I just cleaned the crap out of it with Simple Green and then I wrapped the cables with a non adhesive electrical tape I got that's used for wiring in vehicles from a resto shop... then wrapped that with hockey tape for the authentic look. Soldered up new tail light sockets, generally cleaned it up. Hope this will tie me over for the next 50 years....thought I'd share what I found out....
-- Edited by crazydog on Thursday 22nd of January 2015 11:53:42 PM
I am betting the Nova harness is likely identical until you get right to the back where the Acadian harness splits for the tail lights and backup lights.
I've had good luck with original harnesses, just check to make sure there's no brittle old wires, no bare wires etc.
I'd be concerned that some repro harnesses may be cheap overseas junk (I don't think AAW is though), some of the wire I see that comes in the box with Chinese junk is AWFUL. Same dimension on the outside as original, a fraction of the wire that would be in the original wire. It's all insulation to make it look "big", then very little copper or whatever inside...
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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles
1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars (now converted to a "factory" 4 speed)
I agree with Carl on the repro stuff. When I rewired my Beaumont I used the AAW complete kit for a 67 Chevelle. The kit was complete from the fuse panel right to the gas tank sending unit. I was very pleased with the schematic, individual wires which were individually labelled, terminations light sockets , AAW had really nice stuff. The only items that did not suite was the signal / flasher light attaching clip. As Carl mentioned, I am sure the Nova and Acadian sets would be interchangeable. In short the AAW systems are for people like me "wiring for dummies " . good luck
-- Edited by DEJ on Saturday 24th of January 2015 03:06:05 PM
